We can't just let it go, or kids in the future will think it is right to post pics of themselves "making it rain" with "Benji's." Even if this money is not football related, this young man needs to understand he looks ignorant among other things due to this picture. I feel like there is only man who could say this better than I did. Well maybe there are others, but he would be the best.

That is Mike Bellemy, a five star RB out if Florida who signed with Clemson 2? years ago. And yes, it is real. No I don't know exactly the story behind the picture, but it did cause a stir. He is no longer with the Clemson program.

It's not 100% related to his college choice, but this does make me feel better. Two things come to mind here: 1. Taking money is not good, obviously. 2. How did he think it was a good idea to post this on twitter ever.

I have ever known personally, drove a Buick Century (well, 2 actually) for 13 of the 20 years my parents worked for her. She is worth a few hundred million dollars. In my experience, rich people dont want anyone to know they are rich. They don't want to become a target

Funny thing is that there are 3x $100s, the back of a $5 bill visible at the top and maybe a few others beneath that in Treadwell's pic. That's $305 plus some unknown other stuff that may or may not be $1s or $100s or nothing.

Post a pic of a few 100s in cash and you can pretend you're a baller. But if you told the ladies you had $305 in your checking account you can be sure that no one is mistaking you for Jay Z. Something weird to kids about cash money.

Yeah, I think if he had more 100 dollar bills they would be more prominent. I think it's odd when people post pictures like this but I wouldn't start making assumptions on where it came from. He’s still in high school so there’s no need to make assumptions about his character.

When you come from the hood its hard to turn down green. We got Morris and some REAL Green, no wonder the coaches stopped recruiting him. Guess we dont want to send bags of money to Illinois. Reminds me of:

It would be really cool if Hoke just took a running start and broke down the front door of the Treadwells' house, but unfortunately, things don't work that way. The family actually has to agree to let the coach in the house. It's a two-way street. If Treadwell wasn't interested in going to Michigan by that point, he would have no reason to waste 2 or 3 hours entertaining Michigan's coaching staff.

but what has he got there...50 dollars? I can see what someone might think seeing that tweet, but that is one small stack of cash. Unless it's a stack of thousand dollar bills it isn't much to brag about. Still...the mentality of a college athlete (or soon to be) to take a picture of a stack of money (no matter the size) begs the question of how smart he really is. It doesn't take much of a leap for someone to assume it is related to the decision he recently made to attend a certain university (whether that is actually the case or not).

I'm not saying anything illegal is going on, it could all be his own hard earned cash, but don't say $50 when $300 is clearly visible plus a stack of bills below it. Looks awfully fishy to me and the fact that it was deleted soon after only adds to my skepticism.

The only thing that I can think of is that he realized how bad it would look to tweet a picture of himself holding a stack of money right after his Ole Miss visit.

On a side note, I hate it when people automatically make "$EC" and "well it looks like he's more interested in getting paid than winning" comments after we lose out on a guy. However, between J Diamond and now Treadwell, I'm even starting to wonder.

$300 is a big deal. I'm not saying Treadwell tool any money, but a few hindered dollars is what boosters give to recruits to wet their appetite. It's enough money to a high schooler that he gets some spending cash, but little enough that he knows he won't get caught (and he won't). This can happen on multiple occasions. A booster can promise more later. It adds up, and it's not insignificant.

The most overlooked piece of recruiting info that came out this year was, if i recall, about 6 months ago (ish).

It was LT basically saying that the Michigan coaches had not contacted him in quite some time and he didnt know why.

It baffled me not only how Michigan fans did not notice these comments, but how most still though LT was a lock, even though the Michigan coaches next to dropped him for some reason unknown to all us fans, but definitely known by the coaches.

I was always curious as to why the Michigan coaches walked from him. He 'seemed' like a good kid.

1/2 were pissed at how our coaches "could be so stupid"...then the rest of us all knew what was going on.

It happens all over the country, in more ways than people realize. In the end, not a big deal and probably not the only kid THIS YEAR that we lost due to "other" circumstances.

I've worked in college athletics for quite some time, there's only so much you can do. Just yesterday, I heard a story about a dad pimping out his own daughter who was on the welcome team (they've got all kinds of names for the group and literally every school has them)...giving her money to give to recruits, take them out, do whatever. School had no knowledge, just some crazy, rich, fan that thought he was helping his team.

We have crazy freakouts on MGoBlog all the time, can you imagine what that's like at the "MGoBlog of Ole Miss?"

Fact is, you can't control an entire fan base. If people want to cheat, they're going to cheat. The bigger issue is making sure coaches aren't involved and student-athletes are educated.

For every athlete that takes money, there are probably 10 more than turn down handouts. Hell, I remember when I was in college. Me and my best friend who played football at OSU walked back to his dorm...at the door was a box. Inside...a Rolex. He had no idea where it came from, it didn't even say anything other than "Go Bucks" on it.

Another friend who was at MSU had someone give him an envelop with $400 in it. Neither guy kept the gift or knew where it came from. Neither guy got another gift to my knowledge...but I don't think in either case anyone associated with the University knew about it until they turned them in.

I think LTs exact quote was that Michigan wasn't "showing him the love." People took that as UM coaches not speaking with him when that is clearly not the case according to the wise TomVH. Also, Shane had a quote during the UA game along the lines of "Im recruiting LT but not sure what this dudes deal is."

I am happy we didn't get LaQuon. Don't get me wrong, he's a great player, but I have had a bad feeling about him. The way his recruitment unfolded, and how he likes to be in the spotlight, I can see some Pryor like results for him.

This is not shocking in the least. Treadwell may be a great kid, and I don't know anything about him or his motivations. But that said, it is INCREDIBLY rare for a blue-chip recruit to pick a school that has no recent history of success and is not reasonably close to home.

Ole Miss has one 10-win season since 1972, and their coach, Hugh Freeze, has only been a HC for two years (at Ole Miss for one). So it's not like he's signing up for a program that will be competing for championships.

Take a look at the Rivals 100 for each of the last few years: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010. The only kids on those lists who signed with programs that had not either experienced significant recent success or were local were Yuri Wright (2012 4*, high school in NJ to the University of Colorado), Gabriel Marks (2012 4*, Los Angeles to Washington St.), and James Hurst (2010 4*, Indiana to UNC). The only one of those ranked higher than #85 in the country was Hurst, an OL ranked #32. There is literally no instance in the last four years in which a blue-chip player signed with a mid-level program out of his region.

So we have a situation where a kid from Illinois just signed with a middling school nine hours from home, and started flashing cash around. Not only that, but Ole Miss is by many accounts the leader for Robert Nkemdiche, the #1 overall recruit in this class, who is from Georgia - not quite as far, but still not exactly local, which also seems fishy. Again, I don't know anything about Treadwell as a person, or his motivations, and this certainly is not clear proof of any impropriety. But there sure is a lot of smoke in this case for there to be no fire behind it.

the SEC is the premiere conference in college football right now and they can offer immediate playing time. think about what beating alabama did for johnny manziel, a freshman last year, you would not have many opportunities to do that in the B1G or anywhere else.

I've concluded that Michigan was asked to pony up and refused to get in bed with Treadwell. After several attempts by Treadwell to shop his talents around to other schools Ole Miss came thru. Just my opinion but I think it's more Treadwell wanting assistance and not caring where he plays. Word spreads then all those who are like Treadwell start showing up on Ole Miss' front door. IMO.

Anytime a high profile recruit is flashing wads of hundreds .. It's suspicious. I don't care if the kid is black, white, green, yellow, purple .. It doesn't matter. Plenty of white kids and black kids come from wealthy families and plenty of white kids and black kids come from families that have nothing. Point is ... Anytime a high profile recruit flashes wads of hundreds right in the middle of recruiting season and decision dates .. It's suspicious. Even kids from wealthy families are rarely given thousands of dollars at a time to flaunt around. And with all the shady recruiting that has been proven to be true this is more so. Lastly, the way LaQuons recruiting unfolded was shady in itself. It's a miracle that Ole Miss suddenly lands the top recruits out of no where. One I could see .. But Tunsil, Nkemdiche and Treadwell? They could end up with that trio and how?

Look, I'll admit this is a dumb thing for him to do at this time of year, but I think it's equally dumb to pretend that there isn't a racial component to how these kinds of stories are portrayed. I don't really understand the "flash your cash" thing that these kids today are doing, but it's apparently a thing.

When I was 17 I had a bank account with money in it. I got that money from, you know, working. I can't remember how much I had but I'm sure it was more than is pictured there. Also, I bet if I had wanted to, I could have gone to a bank to get cash and laid it on my dining room table and taken a picture. The picture doesn't mean anything.

All we've got is conjecture about how you think Ole Miss should be recruiting accompanied by a picture of probably not very much money and a whole bunch of people on this thread are jumping to the conclusion, "Oh, this is why he went to a school that isn't my school. $EC hurr durr."

Negged for bringing race into this. ~100 comments in, and yours is the first to bring up race. Top reasons for why this pic raised a red flag in just about everybody's minds:

- Recruiting has been known to be less than virtuous over the years, especially in the south/southeast.

- A year ago, Treadwell seemed like a heavy Michigan lean. For whatever reason, he decided to go to Ole Miss, a mediocre school in the south. I'm sure many people wondered (and some may have commented, I don't know) if there were some shady dealings. However, we have had no real reason to think that he was under-handedly lured to Ole Miss - despite being a mediocre football school, their campus is beautiful (by all accounts), they do have a long (albeit rough) history, his best friend just finished his freshman season there, and their coach is known to be a good, enthusiastic recruiter.

- He claimed that Michigan coaches weren't "showing him the love." From TomVH, we know the coaches didn't cut off communication with him, so they must not have been giving him what he was looking for.

- A week before NSD, he posts a picture on his Twitter account with a handful of money, then quickly deletes it. There are obviously many ways he could have gotten that money, and we have no proof that he got that money from a booster (we don't even have proof that that was his hand in the pic), and it's possible he removed a perfectly legitimate picture of money to avoid speculation.

All of that adds up to raise some question marks, and none of that has to do with race.

But I'd point out that a kid not going where he was expected to go is not exactly new. Also, it's just as plausible that Treadwell's feeling that the coaches weren't 'showing him enough love' meant that he wanted more contact/attention etc. You're jumping to the money thing without any evidence. There's no real evidence the kid is dirty, yet a bunch of people here are acting as if it's obvious he is.

My point is that there is a tendency on the part of the predominantly white, predominantly middle class consumers of college football to look at the admittedly odd subcultural phenomenon of African American kids posing with fistfuls of cash and thinking that they must have gotten that money from some shady source, when in reality the amount of money getting flashed is nothing in most cases.

If Shane Morris tweeted a picture of a deposit slip from depositing $500 cash into an 18 month CD the week after a visit, I doubt many people here would be so scandalized. Unless, of course, they thought that he'd be better served by preserving the liquidity available through a traditional savings account.

But I was irritated that I'd read through 100 or so posts with very few people pointing out that the amount of money showing is not anything out of the ordinary for a kid with a high school job to have. I thought it was shameful that there isn't any evidence whatsoever that the kid did anything wrong, yet people are just assuming that he's done something wrong.

Apparently people disagree with me, which is fine I guess, but you'd be hard pressed to convince me that the reaction when pictures like this come out isn't partially conditioned by the race of the kids posing with the cash. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

Racism comes in a lot of forms and degrees. Almost no one actually thinks that they're a racist, yet discrimination occurs all the time. See here for just one example. I'm sure most of the people in HR departments reviewing applications aren't members of the KKK, but the results are what they are.

Everyone wants to believe the best about himself. It's like those studies that show that 90% of people think they're smarter than average.

Actually they would. Do not forget that people were question how Johnny Manziel (who is as pasty and white as they come) was able to get floor seats at Mavs games, flash hundreds at casinos, and go the the national champioship game. And Manziel's family has got tons of oil money, and yet people still speculated on where he got the money.

Throwing the racism card where none exists only serves to lessen the impact of it where there actually is racism present. (Kinda like the boy who cried wolf)

The weirdest thing to me about Treadwell to Ole Miss is not that a kid would go to a certain school based on that. It's that either Ole Miss had the most to offer among all schools that have something to offer or that there were certain schools that were atttractive to him and yet Ole Miss was the most attractive choice among the group of schools that met his criterion.

Is 8.25 I think, a bi weekly check from a part time job is reasonably close to that. I'm not saying he has a part time job or what he makes or where it came from. It's not a large sum of money. The main point is that this is sour grapes over a kid who chose to go somewhere besides Michigan.

That looks very much like a decent sized stack of $100 bills on the table. I don't even make that much at my shitty part time job with a bi weekly paycheck.

Granted, it may be a friend/relatives money and he was just fucking around and taking pictures. It may be his personal savings. It may also be money taken from a blank envelope handed to him by an Ole Miss booster.

Either way, none of this really matters because the NCAA doesn't do anything about violations until Deadspin or Yahoo! decides that there may be a possible link to uncover, which there may or may not be.

I try to use an approach that makes me look at it from the other side. He's 17 or 18 years old. I had a job at that age where I made about $1,000 every two weeks. I also lived at home so I had no bills. So on pay day it wasnt very difficult to flash around hundreds. I didn't do it, but Im also not from a generation that was raised to idolize a culture where that is considered cool.